The Reality Bug (23 page)

After a few frantic seconds, we had all the horses gathered together in the center of the barn. They were bumping into each other, kicking at the ground, and whinnying. They weren't happy about this at all.

“Go to the doors!” Loor yelled.

I ran to the big barn doors and grabbed the handles. Loor took our two horses with saddles and led them to the back of the pack.

“Are you ready?” she called out.

I was. So were the horses. They were starting to rear up and I was nearly stomped a couple of times.

“Let's go!” I shouted.

“Open the doors!”

I threw open both doors. Loor gave off a sharp whistle, and the herd of horses charged out of the barn.

I barely had enough time to jump to the side before getting trampled. Loor ran forward with our two horses. Without a second to think about how crazy this was, I jumped on mine and we charged out after the fleeing herd.

Outside, it was a chaos of wild horses and dust. The horses blasted into the open and ran together toward the main street. Loor and I pushed our horses forward to stay as close to the wild herd as possible. We both crouched low in the saddle, trying to offer smaller targets. I kept expecting to hear gunshots, but they didn't come. I guess there was enough confusion going on that the desperados didn't want to waste their ammunition. Good for the horses, good for us.

We were out, and we had our horses. Now it was a race. We had to get to that dam and find Zetlin before the whole thing blew up, or the desperados stopped us.

“Which way?” Loor yelled.

I figured we came into town from one direction, so the dam must be in the other. I gave my horse a quick kick in the butt, and we were off. We charged down the main street of Old Glenville, flew past the church, and blasted along the dirt road leading south. Side by side we galloped along the road like a couple of bandits on the run.

I soon realized there was something else to worry about. As much as I'd like to pretend otherwise, I'm not a very good rider. This was freaking scary! The horses were fast, which was good, but I barely knew what I was doing. If I fell off at the speed we were going, something would get broken. Probably my head. I grabbed the reins with one hand, and had a death grip on the saddle horn with the other. I didn't even look at Loor. She knew way more about riding than I did. I had no idea how much time had gone by, but every second counted. Slowing down was not an option.

“There it is!” Loor called to me.

Sure enough, looming up in the distance, tucked into a ravine, was a huge stone dam. Saint Dane said it was a mile out of town, but it was so big it looked much closer. I could even see the small, stone building on top, right in the middle.

Bang!

We weren't alone. I didn't turn around to look because I was afraid I'd lose my balance. But Loor did.

“They are coming,” she announced.

“How many?” I asked.

“All of them. Saint Dane, too.”

Swell.

More shots were fired. I kept expecting to feel the sting of a bullet, but they must have been too far back to be accurate. We had to keep it that way.

The road forked. It was clear that the right fork would take us to a trail that led up the side of the ravine, and to the top of the dam. Without a word we both steered our flying horses onto the right path. The trail quickly grew narrow as it rose up along the side of the steep ravine. But we still pushed the horses on. We couldn't risk being caught. Soon, we had risen up so high that there was a steep drop off to the left. I was in the lead. If my horse took one wrong step, adios.

The trail then entered a forest. Branches slapped at us from both sides, trying to knock us off. It was getting painful.

“We gotta slow down!” I said.

Loor and I both pulled on the reins and slowed to a trot. I could see through the trees up ahead that we were nearly at the top of the dam. There were only about a hundred yards to go.

“Give me the noisemaker,” Loor ordered.

I looked back and was shocked to see that Loor was getting off her horse.

“What are you doing? We're almost there!” I shouted.

“Keep going,” she said. “Find Zetlin and get him out. I will stop the others from following.”

There was no way I was going to leave Loor here alone. “Loor, I won't—”

“You are wasting time, Pendragon!” she shouted at me. “We must save Zetlin! That is all that matters. Give me the noisemaker!”

It killed me, but I pulled the six-shooter out of my belt and tossed it to her. She looked at it curiously. My confidence wasn't high.

“Hold the handle, point the long end at the bad guys and pull the trigger,” was the quickest instruction I could think of. “Hold it tight, it'll probably kick.”

“Go!” she ordered.

I snapped the reins, kicked my horse, and galloped for the dam. I took one last look over my shoulder to see that Loor had pulled her horse into the trees. She was setting a trap. Man, what a brave girl. But then again, if the dam blew up, she wouldn't be on it. I would. I didn't know which was worse, facing the desperados, or standing on an exploding dam. Suddenly I wasn't feeling so bad for her anymore.

It was all about time now. I had no idea how soon the dam was going to blow. A few seconds later, I broke out of the trees on top of the ridge to see the huge lake that Saint Dane told us about. A quick look to my left showed me that I had made it to the top of the dam. The stone hut was about halfway across, which I'm guessing was about fifty yards away. Fifty very long yards. I figured I could cover the distance faster on horseback.

That's when I heard gunfire. The quick, sharp pops told me that the desperados had caught up with Loor. I could only hope that she'd be safe, and keep them back long enough for me to get to Dr. Zetlin.

“Yah!” I slapped the horse's flank, and we charged out onto the dam. It was only about ten feet wide, with water on one side and a very long drop on the other. I hugged the water side.

Crack! Crack!

More gunshots, followed by splinters of stone kicking up around me. The desperados weren't gunning for Loor, they were shooting at me through the trees. I ducked down on the horse and begged it to run faster.

Ping! Crack!

A piece of flying stone stung my arm. They were getting better, but there was no way I would be stopped. Not when I was so close. We had played Saint Dane's evil game and nearly won. I made it to the stone hut and jumped off my horse. I tied it on the far side of the hut, making sure to use the building for protection against the shooting desperados.

A million thoughts flew through my head. What was my next move? I would get Dr. Zetlin out, get us both on the horse, and then go … where? If we went back the way we came, we'd land right in the laps of the desperados. But I couldn't abandon Loor! The only choice was to keep going to the far side of the dam. But then once the dam blew up, Loor would be trapped with the desperados.

It was a familiar, horrible feeling. I was faced with a choice. Which was more important? The future of Veelox, or the safety of my friend? It was the
Hindenburg
all over again. Was this what Saint Dane wanted to do all along? Did he want to put me in the same, horrible position just to see me fail again?

These thoughts took all of three seconds to flash through my head. I truly didn't know what to do. All I knew for sure was that I had to keep going. But when I threw the door of the hut open, I was rocked by a sight so incredible that it made all my other concerns seem trivial.

“Dr. Zetlin!” I shouted as I opened the door. “We've got to get off the dam or—”

When I saw the man inside the hut, I froze. It wasn't Dr. Zetlin. This wasn't playing out the way it was supposed to. But to be honest, Saint Dane hadn't lied, either. He told us that the man I was worried about was in this hut. And he was.

It was Gunny.

“Shorty!” he yelled when he saw me. “What in heck is going on?”

Gunny was tied to a chair with a long length of rope. Seeing him was such a shock, I couldn't function.

“Wha—how did you get here?” I stammered.

“Saint Dane sandbagged me! Get these ropes off!”

My brain clicked back into gear. I ran to Gunny and started working on the knots. I wasn't sure if I was happy to see him or totally freaked out.

“You're not gonna believe what's been going on,” I said. “This isn't real. None of this is.” I then stopped working and looked at him. “Wait, I don't get how you can be here. Did Saint Dane bring you into a Lifelight pyramid?”

Gunny was about to answer, when I felt a sharp rumbling. It felt like a short, quick earthquake. But it wasn't. Our ten minutes were up. More rumbling followed. The dynamite was exploding. There was no way we could get off in time. The dam was about to collapse, with Gunny and me still on it.

“W
hat's happening?” Gunny asked. His eyes were wide with fear.

“The dam is exploding,” I said. “Saint Dane loaded it with dynamite.”

I caught a glimpse of my horse charging away. He had pulled free and was galloping off in terror. Smart horse. He knew what was about to happen.

“Get yourself outta here,” Gunny ordered.

I wanted to argue. I wanted to be all sorts of brave and say: “We're getting out, together!” or something equally heroic. But the truth was, there wasn't time. The exploding dynamite was tearing the dam apart. The floor shook, the stone ceiling started to fall down around us. In a few seconds there would be no more dam and no more us.

“Run, Pendragon,” Gunny implored.

It was too late. I knew there was only one possible way to get off this crumbling dam. I lifted my arm and pulled up my sleeve to reveal my silver control bracelet with the three square buttons. The button on the far right was supposed to end the jump. The last time it failed, but I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I pushed it, and prayed.

The stone hut shuddered. We were going down.

“Good-bye, shorty,” Gunny said.

Everything went black.

I sat up fast and slammed my head.

“Ow!”

I was totally disoriented. My head hurt too. What had happened? A second later, the answer came. With a slight hum, the silver disk that enclosed the jump tube slid back and filled my little tunnel with light. I was back in the Lifelight pyramid! The table slid out, depositing me back in the jump cubicle off the Alpha Core. My bracelet had worked. I had ended the jump. I looked quickly to my left to see a welcome sight. Loor was sliding out of the other tube, safe.

“Pendragon! What happened?” she asked. “I was shooting the noisemaker at Saint Dane and suddenly the world went black.”

She was breathing hard and her eyes were wild. I can honestly say it was the first time I saw Loor rattled. But who could blame her?

“I ended the jump,” I said. “We're back. Are you all right?”

“I am confused, but not injured,” she answered. “Did you find Zetlin?”

I looked to the tube between us to see it was still closed. Zetlin was still inside.

“No,” I answered. “Something is whacked.” I jumped off the table and ran out of the cubicle. “Aja?” I called. “What went wrong?”

But Aja wasn't there. Her control chair was empty. The large monitor was still showing images of our jump though. On screen, I saw a horrific sight. It was a view of the collapsing dam. The explosions had weakened the stone structure and tons of water from the lake came crashing through. The dam crumbled like wet sand. I saw the small stone hut on top fall into the chaos of crashing stone and water.

“Gunny,” I said to myself.

The screen went blank. The jump was over.

“What went wrong?” Loor asked. She was standing behind me, watching the disaster. “Where is Aja?”

“I don't know,” I answered.

I led Loor out of the Alpha Core in search of Aja. Where was she? Why had she left the controls in the middle of the jump? Of course, my mind rushed to all the worst possible answers. I feared she had somehow gone into the jump and gotten hurt. Stranger still, how had Gunny ended up in Zetlin's jump? Worse, if he was in the jump, did he go down with the crumbling dam? There were a ton of questions that needed answering. But first we had to find Aja.

We ran quickly through the core to see all was exactly as we had left it. The monitors were still showing green and there were no phaders or vedders around. There was no Aja, either. We left the glass corridor and hurried back to the counter where we had been fitted with our control bracelets. The Goth vedder was still there, looking as bored as ever.

“Have you seen Aja?” I demanded.

“She left a while ago,” he answered. “She was in a big hurry, too. She said to tell you she had to get home.”

“Home?” I shouted. “But the grid is still suspended!”

“Hey, don't ask me,” the guy said. “I'm just a vedder.”

This made no sense. What was so important at home that she would leave us alone in the jump? I looked to Loor, hoping she might have an answer, and saw she was staring at the oil portrait of the young Dr. Zetlin.

“We must find him,” she said.

“Yeah, I know. But we can't do it without Aja. C'mon.”

We started to leave when the vedder called to us. “Hey!”

We looked back at him and he pointed to his wrist. Right. We still had our jump bracelets on. Loor and I quickly unclasped the bracelets and put them on the counter.

“Thank you,” the vedder said. “This is the way it was meant to be.”

I shot the guy a surprised look. “Why did you say that?”

The Goth guy shrugged. “Just something to say,” he answered, and smiled.

That was weird.

“Let's go,” I said to Loor, and headed out.

I was confused and angry and frightened all at once. How could Aja abandon us? Loor and I jumped onto one of the three-wheel pedal vehicles and quickly made our way back toward the mansion that Aja made home.